Applying the ILO's Decent Work framework to transform South Asia's informal labor landscape, focusing on dignity, equity, and creating sustainable opportunities for vulnerable workers.
Decent Work for All: Dignity, Equity, and Sustainability in South Asia
Welcome to this presentation on the International Labour Organization's Decent Work framework and its critical application to South Asia's complex labor landscape. We'll explore how principles of dignity, equity, and sustainability can transform the working lives of millions in a region where over 90% of workers operate in informal settings with limited protections.
Together, we'll examine practical approaches to address the unique challenges faced by women workers, youth, migrants, and other vulnerable groups across the subcontinent, with a focus on building more inclusive and resilient labor systems.
VR
by Varna Sri Raman
Why This Matters
In South Asia, the challenge of decent work is defined by pervasive informality, uneven economic benefits, and undervalued labor contributions—especially affecting women and vulnerable populations.
Overwhelming Informality
Over 90% of workers in South Asia earn their livelihoods in the informal economy, without contracts, benefits, or legal protections.
Inequitable Growth
Despite impressive economic growth rates, worker well-being has not improved proportionally, with many still earning below subsistence wages.
Invisible Labor
Women's work, home-based production, and vulnerable populations' contributions remain systematically undervalued and unseen in economic metrics.
Today's Agenda
This session explores decent work frameworks in South Asia, examining informality challenges, real-world applications, and strategic pathways toward labor dignity and equity.
Decent Work: Concepts and Pillars
Understanding the ILO framework and its four fundamental pillars that support dignified work
Informality, Gender, and Vulnerability
Examining the unique landscape of South Asian labor markets and their structural challenges
Application: Challenges and Case Studies
Exploring real-world implementations and lessons from the region
Pathways Forward
Identifying practical strategies to achieve dignity, equity, and sustainability in work
What is 'Decent Work'?
Decent Work encompasses fair compensation, fundamental rights, and social protection—creating environments where people work with dignity, security, and freedom while promoting human development and social inclusion.
Productive Work with Fair Compensation
Work that generates sufficient income for workers and their families while ensuring workplace security and protection from hazards.
Fundamental Rights and Development
Respect for core labor standards, opportunities for personal growth, and freedom from discrimination and exploitation in the workplace.
Social Protection and Equality
Access to healthcare, income security during illness or old age, and equality of opportunity regardless of gender, caste, or background.
Decent Work represents the ILO's primary goal for all workers—creating conditions where people can work with dignity, security, and freedom. It recognizes that work is not just about income, but about fundamental human dignity and social inclusion.
ILO's Four Pillars of Decent Work
The International Labour Organization's Decent Work Agenda is built upon four essential pillars: creating quality jobs, ensuring workplace rights, providing social protection, and promoting dialogue between stakeholders.
Social Dialogue
Fostering representation and voice
Social Protection
Ensuring security and health
Rights at Work
Guaranteeing fair standards
Employment Creation
Generating quality opportunities
These four interconnected pillars form the foundation of the ILO's Decent Work Agenda. Each pillar addresses essential dimensions of working life, from access to productive employment opportunities to the fundamental rights, protections, and dialogue mechanisms that ensure work enhances human dignity rather than diminishing it.
Decent Work Is Universal
Decent Work principles apply to all workers regardless of sector, providing dignity and protection across formal employment, informal work, domestic labor, and rural economies.
Formal Sector
Government and corporate employees with documented employment relationships
Informal Sector
Street vendors, waste pickers, casual laborers without formal recognition
Domestic Sphere
Home-based workers, domestic helpers, unpaid family contributors
Rural Economy
Agricultural workers, artisans, and forest-dependent communities
The principles of Decent Work apply universally across all sectors and forms of employment. Whether in the formal economy or the vast informal sector, all workers deserve dignity, fair treatment, and protection. Decent Work is also central to effective poverty reduction strategies and the pursuit of greater social justice.
Decent Work and Human Rights
Decent Work upholds fundamental human rights established in the UN Declaration, promoting dignity, freedom from exploitation, and worker participation in all economic contexts.
UN Declaration Alignment
The Decent Work Agenda directly supports Articles 23 and 24 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which establish the right to work, free choice of employment, just conditions, and reasonable limitation of working hours.
This alignment emphasizes that labor rights are not merely economic considerations but fundamental human rights that must be protected in all circumstances.
Dignity and Freedom
At its core, Decent Work recognizes the inherent dignity of all workers, regardless of their occupation, gender, or social status. It affirms their right to pursue economic activities in freedom from coercion, discrimination, and exploitation.
The framework promotes participatory decision-making, enabling workers to shape the conditions that affect their daily lives and livelihoods.
Decent Work: The Economic Context
South Asian countries show impressive GDP growth while maintaining extremely high rates of informal employment. This paradox reveals how economic growth metrics often fail to reflect improvements in working conditions for the majority of workers.
Economic growth figures often mask deep inequalities in how prosperity is distributed. While South Asian economies have shown impressive GDP growth in recent decades, these gains have not translated proportionally into improved working conditions for the majority of workers.
Productivity increases have largely bypassed those in informal sectors, leading to growing disparities between the formal and informal economies. This disconnect highlights why economic development must be measured not just in GDP terms, but in improvements to working conditions and livelihoods.
South Asia's Labor Landscape
South Asia faces significant decent work deficits with extremely high informality rates, particularly affecting women and youth, amid weak enforcement of labor protections.
90-95%
Informal Workers
The overwhelming majority of South Asia's workforce operates without formal contracts or protections
72%
Women in Informal Work
Even higher rates of informality among women workers, concentrated in vulnerable sectors
40%
Youth Underemployment
Substantial portion of young workers in precarious, low-quality employment
South Asia presents a challenging environment for implementing Decent Work standards. The region is characterized by extremely high rates of informality, weak enforcement mechanisms for existing labor laws, and the concentration of vulnerable populations in the most precarious forms of work.
Key Facts: Informality
South Asia's informal economy encompasses the vast majority of workers who lack legal protections and earn significantly less than their formal counterparts despite contributing substantially to national GDP.
Massive Scale
Over 400 million workers in India alone operate in the informal economy, making up over 90% of the total workforce and contributing approximately 50% of the national GDP.
Legal Invisibility
Less than 10% of informal workers have written contracts, access to social security benefits, or legal protections against unfair dismissal or hazardous working conditions.
Economic Vulnerability
Average earnings in the informal sector are 50-80% lower than in the formal sector for comparable work, with high exposure to seasonal fluctuations and economic shocks.
Unpacking the Four Pillars
This section introduces a systematic exploration of the Decent Work framework's four pillars, examining their practical applications, implementation challenges, and innovative solutions in the South Asian context.
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2
3
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Understanding Each Component
Examining the practical applications
2
Identifying Gaps and Challenges
Assessing regional implementation barriers
3
Exploring Solutions and Innovations
Discovering contextual approaches for South Asia
In the following sections, we'll analyze each of the four pillars of the Decent Work framework in depth. We'll explore their practical implications for South Asia's complex labor landscape, identify the key challenges in implementation, and highlight innovative approaches that are showing promise in addressing these challenges.
By understanding these pillars both individually and as an interconnected system, we can develop more effective strategies for promoting worker dignity and well-being across the region.
Pillar 1: Employment Creation
Employment Creation focuses on generating sufficient and quality job opportunities for all, particularly targeting underserved populations through entrepreneurship support, strategic investments, and skills development.
Inclusive Opportunity
The first pillar focuses on creating sufficient employment opportunities for all who seek work, with special attention to those facing the greatest barriers to decent jobs.
Key Components
- Entrepreneurship development and MSME support
- Investment in labor-intensive sectors
- Demand-driven skills development
South Asian Context
The region faces persistent challenges of underemployment and working poverty, with millions working full-time yet unable to escape poverty. Youth unemployment remains particularly high despite economic growth.
Challenges in Employment Creation
South Asia faces multiple barriers to employment at individual, institutional, and systemic levels, disproportionately affecting youth, women, and minorities.
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Individual Barriers
Limited access to quality education, skills mismatch, and discrimination based on gender, caste, and religion
Institutional Barriers
Complex regulatory environments, corruption, and inadequate infrastructure for business development
Systemic Barriers
Economic volatility, technological disruption without adequate transition support, and climate change impacts
These interconnected barriers create particularly steep challenges for youth, women, and minorities seeking quality employment in South Asia. Young people face unemployment rates 3-4 times higher than adults, while women's labor force participation remains among the lowest globally at just 20-30% in many parts of the region.
Innovations in Employment Creation
South Asia is witnessing transformative employment solutions through digital platforms, government-led skill development, and public-private partnerships that connect job seekers with opportunities.
Digital Platform Opportunities
The rise of digital marketplaces has enabled micro-entrepreneurs to reach wider markets, with platforms like Urban Company connecting 30,000+ service providers to urban consumers across India.
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Government Skill Missions
India's Skill India Mission has trained over 10 million youth since 2015, with sector-specific programs designed to match industry needs.
Public-Private Partnerships
Targeted job matching initiatives like Bangladesh's Skills for Employment Investment Program have created industry-aligned training with guaranteed placement.
What's Missing? Informal Sector Impact
Despite creating millions of jobs, employment policies often prioritize quantity over quality and overlook sectors where vulnerable workers concentrate, leaving most new positions informal with minimal protections.
Quantity Without Quality
Employment generation policies have often prioritized job numbers over job quality. The result: millions of new positions created in recent years are characterized by low wages, poor conditions, and no social protection.
In India, for example, 85-90% of new jobs created in the past decade are estimated to be informal in nature, perpetuating rather than reducing vulnerability.
Sectoral Blind Spots
Employment policies frequently neglect sectors where vulnerable workers are concentrated. Domestic work, home-based production, waste picking, and street vending—which employ millions of women and marginalized groups—receive minimal attention in mainstream employment initiatives.
These sectors often fall outside formal regulatory frameworks, rendering their workers invisible to policymakers and employment support programs.
Pillar 2: Rights at Work
South Asian workers face widespread rights violations, including high rates of forced and child labor, excessive working hours without compensation, and significant discrimination based on social identity factors.
Freedom from Exploitation
Protection from forced labor, child labor, discrimination, and unsafe working conditions. South Asia has the world's highest concentration of modern slavery and child labor, with an estimated 12 million children working in hazardous conditions.
Fair Working Conditions
Reasonable working hours, minimum wage guarantees, and protection from arbitrary dismissal. In reality, 60-70% of South Asian workers report working more than 48 hours weekly without overtime compensation.
Non-Discrimination
Equal treatment regardless of gender, caste, religion, or ethnicity. Discrimination remains widespread, with documented wage gaps of 30-40% for identical work based on social identity factors.
Rights Gap in Informal Work
Informal workers in South Asia face severe rights violations including lack of contracts, underpayment, and harassment, creating a fundamental vulnerability that particularly affects women.
80%
No Formal Contracts
The vast majority of South Asian workers have no written proof of employment relationship
65%
Below Minimum Wage
Substantial portion of informal workers earn less than legally mandated minimums
87%
Women Facing Harassment
High percentage of women in informal work report experiencing workplace harassment
The absence of formal employment relationships creates a fundamental rights vacuum for informal workers. Without documented employment status, workers struggle to access legal protections or prove violations. For women workers, this vulnerability is compounded by gendered power dynamics that normalize harassment and wage theft.
Vulnerable Workers: Who is Left Behind?
Millions of workers across South Asia lack basic labor protections, with women, daily wage earners, and marginalized groups facing the greatest vulnerability in informal employment.
Domestic Workers
Estimated 4+ million in India alone, 90% women, working in private homes with minimal oversight or protection
Home-Based Workers
Over 50 million across South Asia, primarily women producing garments, handicrafts, and processed foods
Daily Wage Laborers
Construction, agriculture, and casual service workers with no job security or benefits
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Marginalized Identities
Workers facing intersectional discrimination based on caste, religion, ethnicity, disability, or migration status
Case Example: Garment Workers
South Asian garment workers—predominantly young rural women on informal contracts—face systematic labor violations, safety hazards, and gender-specific challenges despite producing for global brands.
The garment sector employs millions across South Asia and exemplifies the challenges in implementing labor rights. Despite being integrated into global supply chains for major brands, most workers remain in precarious arrangements with limited protections or voice.
Pillar 3: Social Protection
Social protection provides safety nets throughout life stages, from basic security to comprehensive coverage. In South Asia, expanding these protections remains critical as 70-80% of the population lacks adequate coverage.
Comprehensive Coverage
Full lifecycle protection
Family Support
Maternity, childcare, disability
Health Protection
Illness, injury, occupational disease
Basic Security
Income, food, shelter
Social protection encompasses systems that prevent and reduce poverty and vulnerability throughout the life cycle. The ILO promotes universal social protection floors that guarantee at least basic income security and access to essential healthcare for all. In the South Asian context, where 70-80% of the population lacks comprehensive coverage, expanding these protections remains a critical challenge.
Informal Workers and Social Protection
73% of South Asian informal workers lack any social protection, leaving them vulnerable to health emergencies, workplace injuries, and old age with no safety net - a gap starkly exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The vast majority of informal workers in South Asia lack access to even basic social protection mechanisms. Without employer contributions or formal registration in social security systems, they face catastrophic risks from health emergencies, workplace injuries, and old age.
The COVID-19 pandemic starkly highlighted this protection gap, as millions of informal workers lost livelihoods overnight with no unemployment benefits, health coverage, or income support to fall back on. Many were forced into debt or extreme poverty within weeks of lockdown measures.
Expanding Social Protection: Country Initiatives
South Asian countries are implementing innovative programs to extend social protection to informal workers through digital registration systems, mobile payment solutions, and universal health coverage initiatives.
India's e-Shram Database
National database of informal workers launched in 2021, with over 280 million registrations to date. Aims to facilitate targeted social protection delivery and create the first comprehensive record of informal workforce demographics.
Bangladesh's Digital Payments
Cash transfer programs using mobile financial services to reach vulnerable households, particularly targeting women. The Maternal Health Voucher Scheme combines cash incentives with health service access for pregnant women.
Nepal's Community Health
Universal Health Coverage initiative aiming to extend basic health services to all citizens regardless of formal employment status, with special provisions for reaching remote populations.
Gaps in Social Protection
Social protection systems face challenges of fragmentation, exclusion of vulnerable groups, limited awareness, and burdensome documentation requirements.
Fragmentation
Multiple overlapping schemes with different eligibility criteria and delivery mechanisms
Exclusion
Migrants, women, and minorities systematically underrepresented in coverage
Awareness
Limited knowledge of available benefits, especially among less educated populations
Documentation
Burdensome paperwork requirements that informal workers struggle to fulfill
Despite promising initiatives, significant barriers prevent social protection from reaching those who need it most. The fragmented approach creates inefficiencies and coverage gaps, while administrative hurdles often exclude the most vulnerable who lack formal documentation or literacy skills to navigate complex application processes.
Social dialogue is the democratic process of negotiation between workers, employers, and governments that ensures those affected by labor decisions have a voice in making them. It builds inclusive policies and provides vulnerable workers with collective influence.
Pillar 4: Social Dialogue
What is Social Dialogue?
Social dialogue encompasses all types of negotiation, consultation, and information exchange between workers, employers, and governments. It represents the democratic principle that those affected by decisions should have a voice in making them.
Effective dialogue requires freedom of association, the right to organize, and recognition of the legitimate interests of all stakeholders in the world of work.
Why It Matters
When functioning effectively, social dialogue creates more inclusive policies, better implementation, and greater legitimacy of labor market governance. It helps prevent conflict by addressing grievances before they escalate and creates ownership of solutions among all parties.
For workers, particularly the most vulnerable, collective voice is often the only pathway to meaningful influence over their working conditions.
Dialogue Deficit in Informality
Most informal workers lack representation in traditional unions, with minimal female leadership and limited awareness of their rights, creating a significant dialogue gap in labor relations.
7%
Union Density in India
Small fraction of workforce in traditional unions, even lower in informal sector
<2%
Women in Leadership
Minimal female representation in union leadership positions despite high workforce participation
65%
Unaware of Rights
Majority of informal workers lack knowledge about their legal entitlements
The dialogue deficit is particularly acute in the informal economy, where workers often lack recognized employment relationships, official representation structures, or invited seats at policymaking tables. Traditional union models, designed for formal factory settings, have struggled to adapt to the dispersed, heterogeneous nature of informal work.
Informal workers in India are finding voice through innovative organizing methods beyond traditional unions—from women's self-help groups and mobile technology networks to strategic legal advocacy.
New Forms of Worker Voice
Self-Help Groups
India's 6+ million women's SHGs have evolved beyond microfinance to advocate for members' labor rights and market access, representing over 70 million women.
Digital Platforms
Worker-led digital networks like Gram Vaani's Mobile Vaani connect 2+ million workers across 20 states to share information and coordinate action via basic mobile phones.
Legal Advocacy
Strategic litigation has secured landmark victories like India's Street Vendors Act (2014) and domestic worker protections in several states, benefiting millions of previously unrecognized workers.
ILO Decent Work and the SDGs
Decent Work is a central component of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, primarily through SDG 8, with targets addressing employment quality, economic growth, and labor rights that interconnect with multiple other development goals.
SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
Decent Work is explicitly featured in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as Goal 8, which aims to "promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all."
Key Targets
- Sustain per capita economic growth and 7% GDP growth in least developed countries
- Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all
- Substantially reduce the proportion of youth not in employment, education or training
- Eradicate forced labor, end modern slavery and human trafficking
Interlinkages
Decent Work also directly contributes to several other SDGs, including poverty eradication (SDG 1), gender equality (SDG 5), and reduced inequalities (SDG 10).
Gender and Decent Work: The Basics
Women in South Asia dominate unpaid and informal work sectors while being severely underrepresented in the formal economy. Their economic contributions remain largely invisible in official statistics and policy, creating systemic disadvantages.
Women constitute the majority of South Asia's invisible workforce, heavily concentrated in unrecognized and undervalued forms of labor. Their work is systematically rendered invisible in economic statistics and policy considerations, creating a gender-blind spot in labor market governance.
Women perform 2-3 times more unpaid care work than men across the region, which limits their ability to participate in paid employment and confines many to part-time or home-based work arrangements that accommodate family responsibilities.
Barriers for Women Workers
Women in South Asia face systemic obstacles to decent work including unequal care responsibilities, significant wage gaps, limited educational opportunities, and restrictive social norms that collectively impede their economic participation and advancement.
Reproductive Responsibilities
The unequal burden of childcare, eldercare, and household maintenance falls predominantly on women, consuming an average of 4-5 hours daily compared to less than 1 hour for men.
Wage Discrimination
Women earn 30-35% less than men for equivalent work across South Asia, with the gap widening to nearly 60% in informal sectors where minimum wage enforcement is weakest.
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Skills and Education
Limited access to technical training and higher education restricts women's mobility into higher-paying sectors, with STEM participation rates below 30% in most South Asian countries.
Legal and Cultural Barriers
Restrictions on women's mobility, property rights, and financial independence create structural obstacles to economic participation and advancement.
Discrimination and Violence
Women in South Asia face pervasive workplace harassment (68%), transit safety issues (47%), and occupational segregation (80%), with domestic workers particularly vulnerable to abuse (91%).
Workplace Harassment
68% of women report experiencing harassment
Transit Safety
47% face harassment during commutes
Occupational Segregation
80% of sectors show strong gender typing
Gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) represents one of the most pervasive decent work deficits for women in South Asia. Physical, sexual, psychological, and economic violence affects women across all sectors, but is particularly prevalent in isolated work environments like domestic service, where 91% of workers report experiencing or witnessing abuse.
The threat of violence significantly restricts women's economic opportunities, limiting their ability to work night shifts, travel for business, or enter male-dominated industries. This contributes to occupational segregation that keeps women concentrated in lower-paying sectors.
Gender-Specific Informality
In South Asia, 50 million women work in invisible informal sectors like home-based production, experiencing different patterns of informality than men.
Women's work in South Asia is characterized by specific patterns of informality that differ from men's experiences. Women are heavily concentrated in invisible forms of informal work, particularly home-based production where an estimated 50 million women produce garments, handicrafts, beedis (hand-rolled cigarettes), and processed foods under piece-rate arrangements with minimal visibility or protection.
Solutions in Gender Equity
Four key approaches to advancing gender equity in the workplace: making women's work visible, implementing gender-responsive monitoring, creating economic incentives through procurement, and ensuring women's representation in decision-making.
Recognition of Invisible Work
Time-use surveys, satellite accounts in national statistics, and formal recognition of care work as productive economic activity can help make women's contributions visible and valued.
Gender-Responsive Monitoring
Labor inspections specifically targeting sectors with high female participation, gender-disaggregated data collection, and women inspectors for sensitive contexts can improve compliance with women's labor rights.
Affirmative Procurement
Government and corporate procurement policies that prioritize women-owned businesses and enterprises with gender-equitable practices can create market incentives for improvement.
Representation in Dialogue
Quotas for women's participation in worker organizations, tripartite bodies, and policy consultations ensure gender perspectives are integrated into labor governance.
Youth and Decent Work
South Asia faces a youth employment crisis: despite better education, young people struggle with high unemployment and skill mismatches, with women particularly disadvantaged.
50%
Youth Population
Half of South Asia's population is under age 25, creating demographic pressure on labor markets
18%
Youth Unemployment
Official unemployment rate among 15-24 year olds, significantly higher than adult rate
35%
NEET Rate
Percentage of youth "Not in Employment, Education or Training" in some South Asian countries
South Asia's youth face a paradoxical situation: better educated than previous generations but with fewer opportunities for quality employment. The skills mismatch between education systems and labor market needs leaves many young people underemployed or working in positions far below their qualifications. Young women face particularly high NEET rates, often due to early marriage and family responsibilities.
Migrant and Seasonal Labor
Internal migration in South Asia involves hundreds of millions of workers who face precarious conditions, lack documentation, and have limited access to essential services while providing crucial labor across various sectors.
Scale
140+ million internal migrants in India alone, with similar patterns across the region
Sectors
Construction, agriculture, brick kilns, domestic work, and urban services
Documentation
Majority lack proof of residence, identity documents in destination areas
Services
Limited access to healthcare, education, and social protection while migrating
Internal migrants form a massive yet largely invisible workforce across South Asia. Moving between rural and urban areas in search of livelihood opportunities, they frequently work in hazardous conditions without legal protections or social safety nets. COVID-19 exposed the extreme vulnerability of these workers, as lockdowns forced millions into desperate return journeys to their villages.
Caste, Ethnicity, and Vulnerable Identities
Social identity significantly impacts work opportunities and wages in South Asia, with marginalized groups earning substantially less and facing both direct discrimination and structural barriers to decent employment.
Social identity continues to powerfully determine access to decent work in South Asia. Dalit and Adivasi (indigenous) workers face both direct discrimination in hiring and promotion, as well as structural barriers that concentrate them in the most hazardous, stigmatized occupations like manual scavenging, tanning, and waste collection.
Religious minorities face additional barriers, particularly in contexts of rising ethno-religious nationalism. The wage gaps shown above persist even when controlling for education levels and other factors, reflecting deeply embedded discrimination.
The Impact of COVID-19
The pandemic devastated South Asia's informal workforce, causing massive job losses, income reduction, and disproportionately affecting women, while highlighting critical gaps in social protection systems.
122M
Jobs Lost
Record job losses in India during April 2020 lockdown alone
84%
Income Reduction
Percentage of informal workers reporting significant income drops
2.7X
Women's Job Losses
Women lost jobs at 2.7 times the rate of men during the pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed and exacerbated the profound decent work deficits in South Asia. Workers in the informal economy bore the brunt of both health and economic impacts, with no unemployment benefits, sick leave, or healthcare coverage to cushion the blow. The crisis revealed the deep inadequacy of existing social protection systems and the vulnerability created by widespread informality.
The COVID-19 crisis prompted unprecedented social protection measures across South Asia, revealing both systemic weaknesses and opportunities for lasting improvement in supporting informal workers.
Rebuilding for Resilience: Lessons from Crisis
Emergency Transfers
Direct cash payments to vulnerable households
Worker Registration
Accelerated development of informal worker databases
Public Distribution
Expanded food security programs
Civil Society Mobilization
NGO partnerships for last-mile delivery
The pandemic response demonstrated both the gaps in existing systems and the potential for rapid innovation. Countries across South Asia implemented unprecedented emergency measures, including India's Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana package that provided direct food and financial support to 800 million people. These crisis interventions have created momentum for more permanent improvements to social protection architecture.
Decent Work and Sustainability
South Asia's environmental challenges present opportunities for creating millions of green jobs while requiring careful transition planning for workers in carbon-intensive industries.
Green Jobs Potential
South Asia faces acute environmental challenges that also present significant decent work opportunities. The ILO estimates that proper investment in the green economy could create 14 million additional jobs in the region by 2030, particularly in renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, and circular economy initiatives.
Traditional eco-friendly sectors like handloom textiles, natural fiber crafts, and organic farming already employ millions, predominantly women and rural workers, and could be scaled with appropriate support.
Just Transition Imperative
As climate policies and market shifts reduce opportunities in carbon-intensive industries, workers need support to transition to new livelihoods. Coal mining regions in India alone employ over 500,000 workers who will need alternative opportunities as renewable energy expands.
Just transition frameworks must ensure that environmental progress doesn't come at the expense of vulnerable workers, through comprehensive reskilling, social protection, and economic diversification in affected communities.
Decent Work and Dignity
Decent work extends beyond economics to encompass human dignity, requiring freedom from discrimination, worker voice, recognition, and work-life balance. When dignity is present in work, it strengthens not just individuals but entire communities.
Beyond Economic Measures
Decent Work recognizes that labor is not merely an economic transaction but a fundamental human experience that shapes identity, community, and well-being. Work that lacks dignity—through humiliation, discrimination, or exploitation—damages not just livelihoods but human development.
Elements of Dignity
- Freedom from harassment and discrimination
- Voice in decisions that affect working conditions
- Recognition of skills and contributions
- Balance between work and personal life
Social Impacts
When work lacks dignity, the effects ripple beyond individual workers to families and communities. Conversely, dignified work strengthens social cohesion, reduces conflict, and builds more resilient communities capable of navigating economic and environmental challenges.
The Business Case for Decent Work
Implementing decent work practices provides measurable business benefits through increased productivity, better employee retention, expanded market access, and enhanced company reputation.
Productivity Gains
Studies across South Asian industries show that companies implementing decent work practices experience 15-20% higher productivity and up to 35% lower absenteeism compared to industry averages.
Reduced Turnover
Businesses providing fair wages, benefits, and safe conditions report employee retention rates 40% higher than competitors, significantly reducing recruitment and training costs.
Market Access
Companies meeting international labor standards gain access to global markets and buyers with ethical sourcing requirements, including major brands that increasingly audit their supply chains.
Reputation and Resilience
Strong labor practices protect against costly reputational damage from labor violations and build greater resilience during economic or supply chain disruptions.
Policy Levers: What Can Governments Do?
Governments must deploy multiple policy tools and ensure cross-ministerial coordination to create environments that foster decent work for all.
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Social Protection
Universalize basic floors regardless of employment status
Legislation
Extend legal protections to all forms of work
Enforcement
Strengthen labor inspection and complaint mechanisms
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Skills Development
Invest in demand-driven training and education
Governments play an essential role in creating the enabling environment for decent work. Policy coherence across ministries is crucial, as decent work outcomes depend not just on labor policies but on broader economic, tax, trade, education, and social welfare frameworks working in concert.
Ethical supply chain management requires comprehensive due diligence, commitment to living wages, robust worker protections, and meaningful engagement with worker representatives.
Corporate Responsibility and Ethical Supply Chains
Due Diligence
Comprehensive mapping and risk assessment of entire supply chains, including subcontractors and informal production units often invisible in traditional compliance systems.
Living Wages
Commitment to ensuring that all workers in the supply chain, not just direct employees, earn enough to meet basic needs for themselves and their families.
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Worker Protection
Implementation of safety protocols, grievance mechanisms, and anti-harassment policies that reach all tiers of production.
Worker Voice
Genuine engagement with worker representatives and support for freedom of association throughout supply networks.
Worker organizations in South Asia are empowering marginalized laborers through digital tools, sector-specific organizing, and creating pathways to formal recognition.
Workers' Organizations: Empowering the Marginalized
Digital Documentation
Worker organizations are leveraging simple mobile technologies to document labor violations, creating evidence bases for advocacy. Apps like "Shram Suvidha" enable workers to photograph unsafe conditions and report wage theft in real-time.
Sector-Specific Organizing
New union models focus on occupation rather than workplace, allowing dispersed workers like domestic helpers to organize collectively. The National Domestic Workers Movement has organized over 2 million workers across 23 states in India.
Formalization Pathways
Worker collectives are creating bridges to recognition and rights. Waste picker associations have secured municipal identity cards and contracts in multiple cities, transforming a stigmatized occupation into recognized public service.
Technology and Decent Work
Technology presents both challenges and opportunities for decent work in South Asia - creating new risks through digital platforms and algorithmic management while also offering tools to extend protections and rights to workers.
Digital Risks
The rapid spread of digital platforms and algorithmic management creates new decent work challenges in South Asia. Platform workers often fall outside traditional employment frameworks, with limited protections or benefits despite working full-time hours.
Algorithmic systems can perpetuate existing biases, with studies showing that women and lower-caste workers receive fewer high-value assignments on many platforms. Intrusive digital surveillance is becoming common, with factory workers reporting being monitored even during bathroom breaks.
Digital Opportunities
Technology also offers powerful tools for extending decent work protections. Digital registration systems have enabled millions of previously invisible workers to access social security benefits for the first time.
Mobile platforms provide accessible information about labor rights in multiple languages, while digital payment systems reduce wage theft through transparent, traceable transactions. Worker-controlled data cooperatives are emerging as models for balancing efficiency with dignity in the digital economy.
Monitoring Progress: Data and Accountability
Effective decent work monitoring requires inclusive measurement approaches, disaggregated data analysis, worker participation, and transparent reporting mechanisms.
Inclusive Measurement
Traditional labor force surveys systematically undercount informal and women's work. Comprehensive time-use surveys and household-based data collection are essential to capture the full spectrum of productive activities.
Disaggregated Analysis
Data must be broken down by gender, caste, religion, migration status, and disability to identify specific decent work deficits affecting vulnerable groups and prevent aggregate improvements from masking continued marginalization.
Participatory Monitoring
Workers themselves must participate in defining indicators and collecting data to ensure measurements reflect their lived experiences. Community-based monitoring initiatives have successfully documented violations in sectors resistant to formal inspection.
Transparent Reporting
Regular public reporting on decent work indicators creates accountability and enables evidence-based advocacy. Bangladesh's ready-made garment sector has seen improvements following transparent factory safety reporting.
Case Study: Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), India
SEWA stands as a pioneering organization that has empowered over 2 million women informal workers in India through its innovative union-cooperative model, providing comprehensive support services while advocating for policy recognition.
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Scale and Reach
2+ million women informal workers organized
Institutional Innovation
Hybrid union-cooperative structure
Comprehensive Approach
Financial, social, and political empowerment
Founded in 1972, SEWA represents one of the world's most successful models for organizing informal women workers. Its integrated approach combines organizing for rights with practical services including SEWA Bank (providing financial services to over 600,000 women), childcare cooperatives, and health insurance.
SEWA's key innovations include adapting the union structure to accommodate diverse occupations, developing leader-organizers from within communities, and successfully advocating for policy recognition of home-based workers and street vendors at national and international levels.
Case Study: Bangladesh Garment Sector
The 2013 Rana Plaza disaster transformed Bangladesh's garment industry through binding safety agreements, though challenges in worker welfare persist despite safety improvements.
Crisis as Catalyst
The 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse, which killed 1,134 workers, became a turning point for Bangladesh's garment industry. The tragedy exposed the human cost of poor working conditions and weak regulation in a sector employing 4 million workers, mostly young women from rural backgrounds.
Binding Agreements
The disaster led to the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, a legally binding agreement between global brands, retailers, and trade unions. This pioneering model established independent inspections, transparent reporting, and brand accountability for remediation costs.
Ongoing Challenges
While significant progress has been made on building safety, other decent work deficits persist. The minimum wage remains below living wage estimates, and harassment, excessive overtime, and limitations on freedom of association continue to affect many workers.
Case Study: Waste Pickers' Rights in Pune, India
A powerful example of how marginalized informal workers organized collectively to gain formal recognition, improve working conditions, and secure better livelihoods while providing essential environmental services.
From Marginalization to Recognition
Pune's 10,000+ waste pickers, predominantly women from Dalit communities, historically faced extreme stigma, harassment, and hazardous working conditions while performing essential environmental services.
Collective Organization
The formation of KKPKP (Trade Union of Waste Pickers) in 1993 and later SWaCH (Solid Waste Collection and Handling) cooperative created platforms for collective voice and service formalization.
Institutional Integration
Through persistent advocacy, waste pickers secured official municipal recognition, identity cards, door-to-door collection contracts, and integration into the city's solid waste management system.
Key outcomes include income increases of 40-150%, access to social protection schemes, improved occupational safety, and enhanced social status. The model has been replicated in multiple Indian cities and demonstrates how informal workers can transition to greater formality while maintaining their livelihoods.
International Good Practice: Decent Work in Sri Lanka's Tea Sector
Sri Lanka's tea industry has transformed working conditions through multi-stakeholder initiatives focusing on improved housing, childcare, healthcare, and worker participation in management decisions.
Sri Lanka's tea industry, which employs over 500,000 workers predominantly from Tamil communities, has made significant strides in implementing decent work through multi-stakeholder compacts. Key innovations include comprehensive housing programs that have replaced colonial-era "line rooms" with family housing units, on-site childcare and education facilities, and the establishment of joint worker-management welfare committees with substantial decision-making authority.
Roadblocks to Decent Work
Multiple barriers obstruct decent work implementation in South Asia, with weak enforcement and extensive informality being the most severe challenges. These systemic issues are compounded by social discrimination and market pressures for low-cost production.
The implementation of decent work principles faces significant structural barriers in South Asia. Even where progressive labor laws exist on paper, enforcement remains weak due to understaffed labor departments, corruption, and political interference. The vast scale of informality means that most workers fall outside regulatory frameworks entirely.
Deeply embedded social hierarchies based on gender, caste, and religion normalize exploitation of vulnerable groups, while global market pressures for low-cost production create incentives to minimize labor standards. These interconnected challenges require comprehensive rather than piecemeal solutions.
Transforming Mindsets
Achieving decent work requires changing societal attitudes toward undervalued labor while highlighting successful implementation examples that prove improvements are both possible and economically viable.
Changing Public Perceptions
Achieving decent work requires transforming deeply held attitudes that devalue certain forms of labor and the people who perform them. Public education campaigns can highlight the essential contributions of all workers to the economy and society.
India's Safai Karmachari Andolan (Sanitation Workers' Movement) has effectively used documentary films, social media, and direct action to challenge the stigmatization of sanitation work and workers, garnering widespread public support for improved conditions.
Amplifying Success Stories
Narratives of successful decent work implementation can demonstrate that improvement is both possible and beneficial. Documented case studies of companies that have improved working conditions while remaining competitive provide powerful counterarguments to claims that decent work is unaffordable.
Worker-led media initiatives like Video SEWA enable women in informal sectors to document their own stories, challenges and achievements, creating authentic representations that challenge stereotypes and build solidarity across occupational divides.
Decent Work: A Journey, Not a Destination
Decent work requires continuous adaptation as frameworks evolve, crises emerge, technology transforms work, and societal expectations rise—making it an ongoing process rather than a fixed endpoint.
Frameworks Evolve
New forms of work require continuous adaptation of decent work standards and implementation mechanisms to remain relevant and effective.
Crises Reshape
Pandemics, climate events, and economic shocks create new vulnerabilities requiring flexible, resilient protection systems.
Technology Transforms
Automation, AI, and platform business models fundamentally alter the nature of work and worker-employer relationships.
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Expectations Rise
As societies develop, worker and consumer expectations for rights, protection, and participation naturally increase.
The pursuit of decent work must be understood as an ongoing process rather than a fixed target. The nature of work itself constantly evolves in response to technological, economic, and social changes, requiring continuous adaptation of policies, institutions, and implementation approaches.
South Asia's path to decent work requires formalizing informal sectors, strengthening worker representation, and establishing universal social protection systems.
Key Recommendations for South Asia
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Strengthen Worker Voice
Support inclusive, gender-balanced organizing
Recognize All Work
Formalize and legitimize informal sectors
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Extend Social Protection
Universal coverage regardless of work status
Priority actions for advancing decent work in South Asia must focus on the distinctive features of the region's labor landscape. Given the overwhelming prevalence of informality, extending recognition and protection to all forms of work—rather than attempting to eliminate informality—represents the most pragmatic approach.
Women and vulnerable groups require targeted interventions that address the specific barriers they face, while worker organizations need policy support to develop models appropriate for dispersed, diverse informal workforces. Finally, universal social protection floors provide a foundation upon which other decent work dimensions can build.
Investing in Human Capabilities
Building human capabilities through education and skills development forms the foundation of decent work in South Asia, requiring investments in basic education, vocational training, and lifelong learning opportunities.
Quality Basic Education
The foundation for decent work begins with universal access to quality education that develops fundamental skills and critical thinking abilities. South Asia has made progress in enrollment rates but still struggles with learning outcomes and retention, particularly for girls and marginalized communities.
Technical and Vocational Training
Skills development systems must evolve beyond supply-driven models to demand-responsive approaches that match market needs. Successful programs integrate workplace learning, soft skills development, and industry certification, while ensuring accessibility to women and disadvantaged groups.
Lifelong Learning
As technological change accelerates, continuous learning opportunities become essential for worker resilience. Modular, flexible training delivery and recognition of prior learning are particularly important for workers with limited formal education or time constraints due to care responsibilities.
Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration
Effective decent work initiatives require coordinated action from government, employers, workers, and civil society, with each contributing their unique strengths through transparent and inclusive platforms.
Government
Policy frameworks, enforcement, public services, and procurement leverage
Employers
Implementation of standards, investment in skills and safety, fair compensation
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Workers
Organization, representation, monitoring, and solution development
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Civil Society
Advocacy, service delivery, knowledge building, and community mobilization
No single actor can achieve decent work alone. The most successful initiatives in South Asia have involved genuine collaboration across stakeholder groups, with each contributing their unique capabilities and perspectives. Effective multi-stakeholder platforms establish clear responsibilities, transparent monitoring mechanisms, and equitable voice for all participants, including those from marginalized groups.
The Role of the ILO
The International Labour Organization serves South Asia through technical expertise, policy guidance, advocacy for decent work, and facilitating dialogue between governments, employers, and workers.
Technical Assistance
The ILO provides specialized expertise on labor standards implementation, social protection design, skills development, and other decent work dimensions through country offices across South Asia.
Policy Advisory
Through evidence-based research and global knowledge networks, the ILO helps governments develop effective labor policies adapted to national contexts while meeting international standards.
Advocacy
As the UN specialized agency for labor issues, the ILO advocates for the centrality of decent work in development strategies and provides platforms for worker voices at national and international levels.
Tripartite Dialogue
The ILO's unique tripartite structure brings together governments, employers' organizations, and workers' representatives to develop consensus-based approaches to labor challenges.
Embedding Decent Work in Recovery and Growth
South Asia's transition to decent work is being shaped by two major forces: green initiatives creating sustainable jobs despite climate challenges, and digital transformation offering new opportunities when properly designed for inclusion and protection.
Green Transition
Climate change presents both challenges and opportunities for decent work in South Asia. The region faces severe climate impacts that threaten existing livelihoods, particularly in agriculture, forestry, and coastal industries. Yet the transition to low-carbon economies could generate millions of new jobs in renewable energy, sustainable construction, and ecosystem restoration.
Successful examples include India's Skill Council for Green Jobs, which has trained over 400,000 workers for solar installation and maintenance positions, and Bangladesh's initiatives to upgrade traditional brick kilns with cleaner technologies that improve both environmental and working conditions.
Digital Transition
South Asia's digital transformation is reshaping work patterns at unprecedented speed. Preparing workers for this transition requires not just technical training but also support for core adaptability skills and digital rights awareness.
Promising models include Pakistan's Digiskills program, which has trained over 1.5 million people in freelance digital services, and India's Common Service Centres that employ 400,000+ village-level entrepreneurs to deliver digital services in rural areas. These initiatives demonstrate how digitalization can create decent work opportunities when designed with inclusion and worker protection in mind.
Measuring Success: Key Indicators
South Asia's progress toward decent work shows significant gaps between current status and targets across five key indicators, with occupational safety at 35% compliance and formal contracts at just 15%, highlighting the need for comprehensive measurement beyond employment numbers.
Measuring progress toward decent work requires a comprehensive set of indicators that capture both quantitative and qualitative dimensions. Key metrics should track not just overall employment numbers but also job quality, protection coverage, and the distribution of opportunities across gender, social groups, and regions.
Particularly important for South Asia are indicators of formalization pathways (such as registration in worker databases and access to identity documents) and reduction in vulnerability (such as reduced wage volatility and increased savings rates among informal workers).
Call to Action: Decent Work is Everyone's Business
Decent work requires collaborative action from policymakers, businesses, and civil society to create systems that provide dignity, security, and prosperity for all stakeholders in South Asia.
For Policymakers
- Prioritize decent work in economic planning and recovery strategies
- Implement universal social protection floors as a foundation
- Strengthen labor administration and enforcement mechanisms
For Businesses
- Adopt comprehensive due diligence throughout supply chains
- Engage constructively with worker representatives
- Invest in upskilling and safe working environments
For Workers and Civil Society
- Develop innovative organizing models for informal economy
- Build coalitions across different worker groups
- Document and share successful approaches
Advancing decent work in South Asia requires coordinated action across all sectors of society. When work is decent, everyone benefits: workers gain dignity and security, businesses see higher productivity and sustainability, and societies experience greater cohesion, equality, and resilience to shocks.
Thank You – Questions & Discussion
This interactive session invites your participation in identifying challenges, sharing success stories, exploring collaboration opportunities, and determining next steps to advance decent work across South Asia.
Implementation Challenges
What are the most significant barriers you face in promoting decent work in your context?
Success Stories
Have you encountered promising approaches that have effectively improved working conditions?
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Collaboration Opportunities
How might we work together to advance decent work in your region or sector?
Next Steps
What concrete actions can you take to apply these concepts in your work?
Thank you for your attention and engagement with these critical issues. The path to decent work for all in South Asia requires sustained commitment, innovation, and collaboration across sectors and borders. We welcome your insights, questions, and perspectives as we continue this important conversation.
Gender and Decent Work: Critical Challenges
Women face disproportionate barriers to decent work including care burdens, restricted mobility, violence, and inadequate legal protections across various sectors.
- Unpaid Care Burden: Women perform 4-10 times more unpaid care work than men, creating severe time poverty and limiting economic participation
- Mobility Restrictions: Cultural norms and safety concerns constrain women's job options and commuting possibilities
- Workplace Violence: Gender-based violence remains pervasive in high-risk sectors like domestic work and garments
- Legal Protection Gaps: Despite sexual harassment laws, inadequate enforcement and pending legislation (e.g., Domestic Workers Bill) leave millions vulnerable
- Sector-Specific Barriers: Construction, agriculture, and sanitation jobs offer minimal maternity benefits, wage equality, or dignified working conditions
Legal Frameworks and Worker Organization
South Asia shows progress in labor protections, but implementation lags. Meanwhile, both traditional unions and new organizing models are empowering informal workers to advocate for their rights.
Legal Protection Progress
New wage codes consolidate labor laws but implementation remains spotty across South Asia.
- Maternity Benefits Act provides 26 weeks paid leave
- Sexual harassment laws exist but enforcement is weak
- Domestic Workers Bill still pending after years
Worker Organizing
Traditional and new models emerge to represent informal worker voices.
- SEWA organizes 2M+ women in informal economy
- NTUI builds cross-sector solidarity networks
- Platform workers forming associations despite classification challenges
- Uber/Ola drivers organizing successful strikes
Informal workers face significant workplace challenges despite legal protections, with limited access to safety measures and fair compensation across various sectors.
Workplace Safety Challenges
Informal workers face heightened risks with minimal protections.
- 47% of construction workers report no safety equipment
- Heat exposure affects 70% of agricultural laborers
- Healthcare access limited for 83% of informal sector
- Injury compensation rarely provided without formal contracts
Wage and Benefits Gap
Significant disparities persist between formal and informal economies.
- Informal workers earn 60% less than formal counterparts
- Women in informal sector face 28% additional wage penalty
- Paid sick leave available to only 5% of informal workers
- Retirement benefits virtually non-existent for 95% of workforce
Case Examples: Worker Rights in Action
Workers across sectors face unsafe conditions, lack of transparency, and inadequate protections, but collective organizing has shown positive results.
- MGNREGA Worksite Quality: Rural employment sites often lack shade, water, and childcare facilities. Women report 30% higher heat-related illnesses than men at these worksites.
- Gig Worker Protests: Ola and Swiggy workers across Bangalore staged four major strikes in 2022. Demands included transparent algorithms, accident insurance, and minimum hourly guarantees.
- Factory Floor Audits: Third-party audits in Bangladesh garment factories revealed 62% failed safety standards. Workers reported retaliation when speaking to inspectors about violations.
- Domestic Worker Organizing: Over 40,000 domestic workers in Mumbai formed neighborhood collectives. They successfully negotiated standard contracts with minimum rest periods and grievance procedures.
Would You Accept These Conditions — For Your Own Child?
Worker dignity crisis in South Asia — conditions we wouldn't accept for our families shouldn't be acceptable for anyone.
Millions of South Asian workers face conditions we wouldn't tolerate for our loved ones. Dignity isn't negotiable. Justice shouldn't depend on privilege.
Resources for Further Action
Key organizations providing frameworks, toolkits, and policy recommendations to address labor rights challenges in South Asia.
ILO India
Country-specific reports on decent work implementation. Access employment statistics and policy frameworks specifically tailored to South Asian contexts.
Working Peoples' Charter
Comprehensive roadmap for labor rights advocacy. Review model legislation and community-driven policy recommendations from grassroots movements.
Aajeevika Bureau
Specialized resources on migrant worker protection. Explore their toolkits for implementing portable benefits and identity documentation systems.
Jagori's Safety Audit Toolkit
Practical guide for workplace safety assessments. Contains participatory methods for identifying gender-based violence risks in informal workplaces.
These resources offer both theoretical frameworks and practical implementation guides. Each organization provides worker-centered approaches to decent work challenges.